Although it may seem unconventional when initially thinking about it, pop music has a very big aim towards females, mainly young but also those who are older who can keep up with all the change and new songs. 'Little Mix' is extremely popular among young teenagers, for both their music and the celebrity image they have acquired, being a relatable all girl band. Yet bands such as 'One Direction', though they are male dominated, still appeal heavily to teenage girls and fan girls who create groups and names for their own fan base. The target audience of women has become even more noticeable with the rise of K-Pop bands, although being Korean Pop, it has recently taken off in both the UK and U.S and many videos have emerged of girls bursting into tears of happiness after being given tickets to see 'BTS' (arguably the biggest K-Pop band globally currently)
Students are the min targets for the Pop Music genre, they will have the most disposable income and time, meaning they are able to keep up with current music. Also within their friend groups Pop music tends to have the biggest hits alongside hip-hop
I had in mind to create a simple yet effective website. Overloading the website with text or information would not suit well to my intended audience, with ideas about the total attention span of younger generations going down, my target audience wants the songs and information quick and easy. The home page generally focuses on the latest or most popular songs of said artists and then if the viewer wants more they can search further into the website if they are a dedicated fan. The link will be either a fake interview or a collection of behind the scenes.
CHVRCHES
The website for CHVRCHES contains a lot more content and material than I will be expecting to include. They have information regarding their albums, tours and an embedded link to their latest/popular song.
With my 'new' indie artist I won't have any information about albums or tour dates to include, since they aren't supposed to be well known, and probably don't have a successful album to promote, it will more likely be one, or maybe two songs, then a little information. Their website uses a very inconspicuous menu bar just beneath their header, yet 3 of the five link to the same home page, the 'stream' and 'store' links take you to a whole new web page. This is the same kind of effect I am wanting to create within my own website.
Khalid
Khalid is relatively the same layout, just closer to the level of publicity I am aiming for, he is well known yet isn't quite taking the same approach as CHVRCHES in terms of tours and promotion. He is much more about creating music rather than touring, meaning his info is more about his songs and the tour dates don't take up a majority of the whole website
The links to social media aren't crucial to my website, due to the only real piece of online convergence being the website, my new artist won't have much of an online presence to link everything from twitter to Instagram. Khalid's website focuses around his album release all about being an 'American Teen', using two main images on the home page, holding the US flag as well as being in the same dessert surrounding while sitting in a stereotypical american car. Representing both his album and his target audience all in one.
Imagery: Pop music generally uses dance orientated beats, leading to the imagery primarily being focused around clubbing, or the main character matches or dances to the beat. Within the sphere of clubs and partying the crowds are presented as young adults, generally clear skinned or fairly attractive, connotes to the audience that these types of happy and wild times are all linked to the song they are currently listening to
Gender: Women within pop, yet not in every single one, generally wear sexual and seductive clothing in order to conform to the male gaze and lure their audience in. Nicki Minaj is an example of a massive pop artist which has a large audience following of both male and female, the men coming for the catchy music and raunchy clips of her, and the girls for catchy music and a female idol.
In terms of the main performer (i.e the artist or main protagonist for the music video) the props and dress style has become more sexualised as well as extravagant. Back in the prime of people such as Britney Spears and Carrie Underwood their make up was no where near the extreme of most pop stars in videos today. Although in recent years, being more obvious of less globally famous artists, younger artists have taken a step back and gone into the more casual dress in their videos being surrounded by friends within their videos. A good example being the artist 'Sigrid' who uses the combination of flashing and eye catching colours, combined alongside energetic dancing, to create a more modest approach when creating her image to the public
Independent labels have been creating and impacting music for a few decades, due to the recent developments of the internet, their work have been more evident in recent years. Radio and Television were traditionally ways of artists to have their big break, now with the Internet gives them a more accessible means of creating a forefront to their music. Nowadays Indie labels account for 30% of overall record sales (statistic from pigeonsandplanes) which are split amongst thousands of labels worldwide.
Indie labels control about 12% of music industry, making them the 4th biggest type within the whole industry.
Examples
4AD : 4AD is one of the larger indie labels created by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1979. It was initially a trial label for up and coming artists, if they gained traction, or showed potential worth investing in then then would move up to "Beggers Banquet Records" They would be judged over the course of a year then it would be decided if they "graduate" but only one group ever ended up following this program
Glassnote : Glassnote was a alternative rock/folk/hop-hop label which became one of the most influential record label powerhouses. They won an Emmy after publishing 'Phoenix's' critically acclaimed debut record, then soon to follow they released 'Mumford and Sons' song 'Sigh No More' which peaked at No.2 on the billboard charts. Glassnote also took on CHRVCHES which are a band I was origionally intending to base my music video on, they had a hit single called 'Recover' and have blown up since then.
Taylor swift presents the stereotypical american story in her music video, which can also feature in a lot of films too, where the geeky nerdy girl fancies a hot popular boy. The representation of herself varies from the nerdy shy girl to the popular mean girl, but she never strays away from her pop figure persona (later she mocks in her “Delicate” music video) where she plays the star role in ALL of her music videos. Using close ups and making her the centre of attention creates her idolising figure which young teenage girls adore
Camera:
POV and over the shoulder shots are used vert creatively within this music video to creative a level in which the audience can see from both the male and female perspective. The over the shoulder shots makes them feel more connected within the scene, as if they are behind the girls back supporting her, or going through the same situation. Living out a dream they can’t achieve through someone else. Closeups between the boy and the nerdy girl are used in order to convey their relationship getting closer and stronger, using the classic narrative, they are just starting as friends but it could lead to more
Target Audience:
Taylor Swift’s main target audience is obviously young teenage girls, this is shown through her “21” music video where her meetup is mainly consisted of all girls, using her concerts as another example. Taylor Swift plays heavily into her target audience, this music especially, the young girls may have someone at school that they fancy and they wish that how this story ends is their own life. Throughout all of Taylor’s videos she presents the female as very stereotypical and getting the dream guy, or as an embodiment of female empowerment, in “Bad Blood” she shows herself and lots of other women off as rough tough females off to kick ass (even is they are scantily dressed in tight leather or latex suits)
Mise-En-Scene:
The locations are all very american based, using a teenage highschool to put across the coming of age love story, as well as harmless house parties to finalise the budding relationship. All of these locations relate massively to her audience, they will all be in high school or some sort of education and relate more to the video creating a sense of involvement or similarity. Clothing wise Taylor faces the absolute basic and generic makeover that every nerdy or geeky girl has to make them attractive, they remove the glasses and become ten times hotter than they were previously thought of.
Sound:
The only obvious sound change in relation to the video is the change in tempo. Just after the ‘hot boy’ realises his girlfriend is a cheat, the tempo changes to a quicker pace while the lyrics “all this time how could you not know baby?” making the narrative match the flow of the visuals.
Ed Sheeran conveys the idea of two people quickly falling in love and it leading to a sexual relationship. “Push and pull as magnets do” shows how sex isn’t in every relationship but their relationship within the video is developing as quick as his lyrics described.
Camera:
Establishing shots are heavily used throughout this music video, setting the different locations they go to, as well as showing what they are surrounded by. Camera is used heavily to influence how the viewer constructs their idea of the relationship that is budding. Using tracking shots to show how the couple laugh through their daily lives, while close ups are used in multiple ways, but always showing their bond. Lighting is used alongside closeups to convey what type of feeling they are experiencing, low lighting bieing more lustful and intense, where as well lit moments show the cuter and more caring side to them both.
Editing:
The whole music video uses very dark and toned down colours, perhaps enhanced in post, but Ed Sheeran and the girl never go anywhere with an explicit amount of colour. The most colour emanates from the gym in which they train, having the colours of American flags and culture surrounding them, while the locker is bright red maybe to highlight the area of their meeting. The music video is perfectly synced up with the audio, its most noticeable in the gym, when Ed and the girl punch in rhythm to the beat or lyrics.
Lyrics:
Ed Sheeran’s lyrics tell a fairly explicit story about how two peoples meeting led quickly to the bedroom then falling in love. This song seems more upbeat and ‘sugary’ in comparison to a lot of Ed Sheeran’s previous songs which tend to focus on the sadder parts of life. His lyrics follow the stereotypical pop culture lyrical setup. (verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus) This shows Ed is going back to the very basics in order to tell these two lovers story.
Mise-En-Scene:
The city scape that they travel through is always a run down area with boarded up building or massive apartment blocks blocking out the sun and sky giving no direct sunlight within the video. The clothing is obviously trying to portray Ed and the girl as much a stereotypical trainee boxers, but this is very out of the ordinary much like this song, Ed doesn’t usually put himself as the rough tough male within his videos. So this is very different and doesn’t match the general style of music video Ed produces, this could be him trying to him change the image he has created for himself over the years of his career.
Tuesday, 5 June 2018
"Take Me To Church" - Hozier
Representation:
Hozier comes from Ireland where the Catholic faith is heavily present in the lives of the everyone. The video tackles both the oppression of gay people within Ireland as well as highlighting the events that were happening in Russia, all being horribly oppressive and homophobic. Hozier uses a shock value video to put across the fear gay people face within religious or culturally dangerous environments, making the audience realise the kind of dangers others face in different countries. The video shoes two young men, and their family, being attacked for expressing their love or romance to any degree. One of them is taken away by a mob of men who drag him to burn his secrets and beat him, while the other frantically tries to warn him, yet he is too late.
Camera:
Camera is used heavily to bring the struggle of the two men to light. Using wide and long shots, usually from a distance, of the two men connotates the idea that someone is watching them from far off and their secret love is not truly secret. Close ups are used when showing the chained box, this box represents the repressed emotions the man is feeling, all while the close up shows the ever looming eyes trying to see into his secrets to ‘crucify’ him for.
Editing:
In post the video has been edited to be watched in greyscale and could be used for different reasons. The first could be to create a more artistic feel for the video, using grayscale creates a unique feel to the video, giving no colours allows the audience to focus on the storyline and lyrics rather than be distracted by the beautiful colours. The second could be to use the lack of colour as a way of representing the lack of freedom the gay community has in the video, there is no joy of colour in their world since it is all shamed and dangerous to express, giving no beautiful colour to their life
Target Audience:
Hozier has no intended audience for this video, it was evident that he was conveying the message of repressed sexuality, being from Ireland this would have been very apparent within his life. Hozier is trying to express to those who believe the same homophobic ideas, to any extreme, should see to what lengths their ideas harm those who they are against. Hozier’s audience would be anyone old enough or educated enough who understands the problem being conveyed in the music video, bringing light to those who may be ignorant of what happens outside of their comfortable bubble.
Sound:
Hozier’s lyrics to “Take Me To Church” is highlight important in telling the story of suffering the two men are facing. “I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife” shows how if anyone was to confess their true feelings or the secrets they hide that they would just be prosecuted since it is outlawed. Or rather seen as being illegal by those of strict faith or backgrounds. “Take Me To Church” as a title, with no context of lyrics or the music video, would connotate the idea of having a religious song maybe singing praise of some sort rather than seeming to attack the church an religion (within Ireland) as being horribly oppressive. Hozier's lyrics convey how much backlash gay people can face but they stick to what they believe, much like someone who i religious, their true belief or faith will come out on top.
The use of match on action used in shots creates a satisfying transition between scenes and shots. Making sure the transition flows brings more pleasure to the viewers eyes, switching between the same actions or changing on a dramatic movement. The editing of transitions and how Sigrid dances is all synced up perfectly to the beat, creating a unison between the sound and visuals presented to the viewer. The editing stylized Sigrid as the classic pop genre star, having her typography dancing around set while holding the camera's gaze
Mise-en-Scene:
The dress code of Sigrid is very basic. Wearing plain colours with no branding or intricate design matches the studio and location she is dancing in. Using no clear labeling of brands matches the clear cut lines of colour in the majority of the background settings. The solid colours and meta way of filming the location gives it a very modern spin as well as breaking away from the pop video stereotypes
Camera:
The medium shots of Sigrid encodes the video with standard pop video ideals, creating a face to Sigrid’s music, creating a character to her face as well as creating a celebrity image. The more shots of her face mean people will link her and he music together more, and how she if filmed dancing and being quite energetic means people will imagine her to be quite bubbly in person. Pans are used heavily within this music video, tracking her throughout the set maintains the viewers focus on her as she dances across various backgrounds and props. Within every shot she is somewhere in the frame, not once is there a space without her, really throwing her into your center of attention
Audience:
Sigrid is an extremely young performer and artist, releasing “Strangers” at only 17 she wildly appealed to the younger audience. Ranging from 12-30 due to people of the same age relating themselves personally to her music, and her genre or style of music fits in with what's big currently. Her audience might range above even that because after the release, she won BBC’s sound of 2018 award and then later appeared on Graham Norton show, showing the far reaches of her music as well as the diversity of an audience it attracts.
Representation:
Sigrid has no set style of representation within this video, she isn’t trying to convey a deep
message in her performance, but rather she is most likely trying to create an image. Representing herself within a video builds her celebrity image. The song is about how movies don’t represent the reality of life, rather is goes a lot differently in real life. “Not like in the movies” is the big line which shows Sigrid is talking about how the two versions of a situation have completely different outcomes due to them being real or staged.
